The season's best buy

By Charles WrightDecember 11 2002
Livewire

After years of tracking Moore's Law and the price of PCs, Bleeding Edge suffered a momentary crisis of confidence in the past couple of months. With the price of RAM spiralling, we thought we were facing a sudden reversal of the downward trend in the price of computers.

Fortunately the situation seems to have stabilised, so that our quarterly review of prices for a workhorse PC again offers good news to prospective buyers. You can expect to pick up our system for roughly $100 less than you would have paid three months ago.

The interesting question that you are going to face, however, is to what extent you want to future-proof your investment.

We've entered a new era with the release of Intel's 3.06GHz Pentium 4 chip. We don't suggest you should even consider spending $1300 for it right now - unless you're a graphics professional or a games tragic. But that chip represents an important milestone in CPU architecture. It introduces Intel's "hyperthreading" technology, which provides a virtual multi-processor machine, and it's quite likely some users might want to take advantage of the substantial performance improvements it represents.

To use it, however, you'll need a different motherboard from the Gigabyte GA-8IE533 that we recommend at $160. That will handle the 1800A Pentium 4 CPU that we recommend. But if you think you might upgrade to that 3.06GHz chip when its price drops over the next six months or so - a decision that will also require a modern operating system such as Windows XP - you might instead opt for the GA-8PR667 Alpha, at $190 (or the Pro model that adds on-board ethernet at $225). On the other hand, by that time there will be better motherboards around, and they'll cost less.");document.write("

advertisement

");
}
}
// -->

The GA-8IE533 includes onboard surround sound and USB 2. If you intend to do any recording - transferring vinyl to MP3 for instance - you might want to invest in a dedicated card, such as the Creative Audigy at $140, but for most users the onboard sound card will be fine.

What that new chip will also require is a well-ventilated case and a more robust power supply. And if you can find something that utilises the Serial ATA standard, which replaces ribbon cables with a thin version that improves thermal flow, even better. The Robanton case with a 300-watt power supply that we came up with is perfectly adequate for the 1800A chip and you'll be able to find many equivalents. But while you might not want to splash out on a Lian-Li case, which provides extraordinary ventilation and striking looks, spending a little more in this area might turn out to be a good investment.

Even though RAM is still more expensive than when we last looked - $150 for 256MB of branded 333 DDR RAM compared to $105 last quarter - get as much as you can afford.

At $1750, the 60GB 7200 RPM Seagate hard drive will cost you $5 more than when
we last looked at it. But to offset that, the 17-inch LG Flatron F700B monitor
is more than $60 cheaper, at $275.

For the first time in two years, we've switched loyalties from NVIDIA graphics chips. The ATI Radeon 9000 offers more features and consistently outperforms the NVIDIA GeForce 4MX, and it costs less. We priced the Gigabyte ATI Radeon at $100, which represents great value.

If you're a gamer, you might want to invest a little more for the NVIDIA Geforce 4 Ti ($415 for the 128MB Asus V8440) or, for the ultimate, the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro ($725).

With the speed of CD writers increasing, we've decided that it's no longer necessary to have a separate CD burner and CD reader. We suggest instead that you settle for LiteOn's 48x48x12 burner for $99.

We recommend an optical mouse and a slightly better-quality keyboard than standard, for which we've allowed $55. Expect to pay $75 for assembly.

We think we've tracked down the cheapest prices in Melbourne but anything up
to 10 per cent above those prices still represents good value, provided you're
happy with the service and reputation of the people you deal with.